System of aeroplane-signaling.



H. M. HORTON; SYSTEM OF AEROPLANE SIGNALING. I APPLICATION FILED OCT. 1 5, 1910.

Llfififilg, Patented Dec. 28, 1915.

I I? INVENTOR WW8 fla /M zfarzm Specification of Letters Patent.

YORK, 21. Y.

9F AEB-UELANE-SIGNALING.

Patented Dec. 28, 1935'.

.l ipplicaricn filed Hotel er 15, 1919. Eerial No. 587,209.

. om i2? Ni my concern n; I. HARRY ill. Henson, 3. oiled States of America, and o New York city, llew York, ented certain new and useful linspecificrtin and accoxn r; 'o'hich disc ise the form ll-Llil which I now consider to be various forms in which the she invention lllfill' be eni- .nrenlion relates to an aeroplane which already has been ac- Ly Hifi', is such a system of Wirel on {,lielegraphy or telephony) cinethcric electric waves, as can be Ically employed, in combination with aerop.=.sne, such for example, as any of line aeroplanes now in use, oi-planes or nicnoplones', that is to say. a system all the apparasus of which is combined with and c llll by the aeroplane itself, such shot an .c, send or receive intelligence so or from slant poinlls, such as other aeroplanes, or s or land stations.

s disclosed system, which already has ed successfully a system-of aeroover distances of several jl only after many failures of or myself and others to apply aeroplane work the ordinary principles chose skilled in Wireless ieleg- .hc disclosed. syslem has been I on a Ollfklfifl'il plane, wherein r served also as the telegraph onand. that case I. placed the telei/ under the operators finger on the Wheel. But i contemplate that in. re practice of my invention, the roplzxne will carry two persons. one the ite-r and the other the Signalman; because it is obviously impracticable to obtain th best results om one man. particularly .Il it is do ircd to have lhe signalman 5o cannonuni ale information to a headquarters, as so his obs-crrstioi of the country over -h the plane is being aviateil. Hence the in fl-lOIl not concerned Willi any details .ch as the most convenient paratus on the plane. The ally develop, oi having a in. Systems of Aeroplane-Sig principles of: wh ch are set forth 301' on she plane can at any part of the 'signalinan whose sole duty shall be, (with eyes on the country below, telephone on .head, and hand on key, or mouth to transmitter), to send and receive intelligence to and from distant stations.

. Myinyention relates particularly to those XllOdlfiGYi-blOl'lS of the ordinary wireless systems my successful work has shown to be li-hoseirhich should be made in order to ierinit practical aeroplane signaling.

13 thedrawings, Figure l is an elevation of in aeroplane, shown by way of example as a biplane, and Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the signaling circuits and apparatus carried by the plane, showing the manner of combining the aeroplane with the apparatus and circuits. T

The machine of Fig. l. possesses, as an important element of its structure, the metallic wire guys or stays G. These are employed as stays or braces in. various Ways now Well known to skilled aviators. For some time, during my unsuccessful experiments, in at tempting to apply wireless signaling to aeroplane Work, those stays seemed to be the means of defeating every attempt at practical working. Finally, however, as hereinafter described, I turned them to a positive and very impor ant advantage.

The apparatus shown in Fig. 2, exclusive of the parts G and W, and consisting of a combination with the inductance coil L, of a local signaling circuit and apparatus, is placed on the aeroplane (Fig. l) in any convenient manner. No particular Way is shown because that immaterial to the in- \ention, and because 'lhc location may be selected by any ordinary skilled person. This local apparatus may be of any do sired nature and may be'eithcr an outfit for sending or receiving; or both may be used, with suitable switches known in the Wireless art, for permitting alternate use of either sending or receiving means with the main signaling circuit. By Way of example, (Fig. a sending outfit is shown, consisting of a local closed oscillating circuit in eluding a condenser K. a spark-gap S, and more or less (adjustable. as indicated by arrowheads) of the inductance L. Energy may be supplied to the local circuit by any suitable means, but for aeroplane Work the generating apparatus should. of course be of smallniass, and l have found, particularly with the importantfeaturcs of my invention to be described, that it is suflicient to employ ill an ordinary induction coil N provided as usual with an automatic break, in combination with a key and battery in series. In my successful \vorkl have used three twovolt storage cells in series in the primary of the coil. The secondary of the coil N may be advantageously connected around the spark-gap S, as shown.

Althoughit is possible, by using the important features of the invention to be described, to dispense with inductaneeloading of the main signaling" circuit, yet I prefer to place the coil L in that circuit in order to prolong the oscillations therein. It is immaterial, however, how the local signalingor oscillating circuit is arranged relative to the main circuit for cooperation there with, although, as shown, I prefer to make the two circuits cooperative by way of the coil L, as being a simple and eilicient arrangement.

In my experience most of niy diiiiculties arose in connection with the main signaling circuit; and no way of working, either with or, Without the coil L, was productive of good results, until the teachings of past experience with wireless were discarded. The trouble seemed to be due chiefly to the deleterious etlect on the main signaling circuit, of the metallic stays and the driving apparatus on the plane, no matter what kind of, a main circuit was 7 used. The stays seemed to ali'ect' both sides of the main circuit, 6., both. connections of that circuit from the coil L or from the l0cal-circuit connection. But finally, success was mstantaf from the stays (l, particularly when the latneouslyaccomplished by the ei iecution ofthe seemingly simple expedient of dispensing with any usual or customary connection 'on;-

, and by substituting therefor the stays themselves; and

one Sic. of the main circuit.

also in simply entirely "einoving iron} the plane the main circuit connection on the other side, and throwing mover-board;- simply retaining its upper end in electrical connection with the stays G and local circuit apparatus, preferably by way of the coil L. Thus theresulting combinationwas ;the

connection of the upper part of coil. L to the stays G and a connection from the lower part of the coil to a pendant wire llf.

The above conception and execution by me followed my observation that the stays were not insulated from each other, so that they might all itogether constitute, as it seemed'to me, a very long conductor having considerable capacity or condensance such that said conductor might not only be Well' adapted for use as one side of the main circuit, but by being usefully employed in the main circuit, its evil effects might be obviated on a 'main circuit constituted other wise. In short, a trial, by way of experiment, demonstrated that to be the case. The freely pendant wire W is shown"- as that it is preferably of considerable feet, as I have found in were connected together,

broken away in order to indicate the fact length, of hundreds of feet high elevations, al-

i. 6., best of the order when the plane is at though the lower end of the wire need not approach nearer the earth than hundreds of feet. The wire W apparently need not he in all cases so long as several hundred practice that good results may be had when it is only fifty or seventy-five feet long. able means may be employed for quickly reeling the wire on orofitheplane during aviation, but the invention is not concerned with such minor matters. The aeroplane used in the case referred to had such struc are as is well known to those skilled in the art,-and so far as this invention is con-' cerned it is material only that'the stays constitute a considerable electrical capacity or condensance. As a matter of fact, in the case referred to, all the wire stays Gr on the aeroplane, fore and aft andon the sides, and, by means of additional'metallic stays or wires, were corn nected to the driving apparatus itself. The diagonal stays G shown, were each screwed into metallic clamps which held together the wooden top and bottom plane-frames, rind the wooden uprights; and at each point where two diagonal stays G crossed dach other, a wire was wrapped around the jam tion and solderedthereto; so that'all tilose metallic diagonal stays were electri'callyconnected together.

disposing the wire V5 as above, away terare used as the other side ofthe main circuit, 1 find that all deleterious action of die stays on the main circuit is obviated and, 111 fact, those stays are most usefully em-.

Of cours'e-Z'any suit with, That needs no further description, as

the thing involves fundamentally no more than connecting adetector in place of thesparlr gap S and in substituting for the coil N a receiving device such as a telephone; except that L and condenser K. may have different values from those used for sending all as well known.

For bothsending and receiving, it may be desirable at times, as in war, to employ tuning; andtb that-end it is also preferable to it may be'desirable to provide a, special receiving-circuit in which inductance employ the coil L; and it is possible to vary the amount the tune; and also, when the local circuit apparatus is such as to permit tuning, it is possible to tune the local circuit to the main circuit by varying the amount of L in the circuit, which would interfere with the nor-- mal constructlon or'operation of the aeroplane. The combination of the inductance L with the other parts G. W of the main circuit. permits ample capacity being given that circuit with minimum length of the freely pendant wire WV, whereby any inconveniences attendant upon the manipulation of that wire, as by reels, are greatly; reduced. Various other advantages will be apparent to those having occasion touse the invention.

,1 claim:

1. In a system of aeroplane signaling, the combination with the frame of the aeroplane, of a concentrated electrical inductance sunof L in the main circuit to vary ing circuit constituted by said inductance and two conducting wires.

2. In a, system of aeroplane signaling, the combination with the frame .of an aeroplane, of radio signaling-apparatus supported by said frame, a conducting wire depending from 'said"frame and electrically connected to said signaling apparatus, and a second conducting Wire of substantial length and electrically connected to said signaling apwire dependand signaling apparatus paratus and depending wire to constitute a' radio signaling circult, said second wire be ing disposed substantially about the peripher" of said aeroplane frame.

HARRY lanon'roux Witnesses: v

PHILIP FARNSWORTH, M. F. Fonsns, Jr. 

